Former Speaker of the House and Serial Pedophile Child Molester Denny Hastert Sentenced to Fifteen Months in Prison

The problem with his sentence is that he seems to be accused of an action which ought to not be a crime -- hiding one's transactions from the government by making them in increments below the level at which a bank must report them.

Which is insane. It's insane first of all that there's a law that says anyone has to report to the government any size transaction to make. And then it becomes positively Lovecraftian that that isn't enough -- no, now it's a crime to "structure" transactions below that threshold as well.

At some point, they'll expand the law to criminalize making transactions just below the phantom threshold to avoid being charged for the that.

First, it was illegal to cross the threshold without reporting.

Then, it was illegal to flirt with the threshold without reporting.

Soon it will be illegal to flirt with the threshold of flirting with the threshold without reporting.

As they often say: A government wants nothing more than to criminalize all behaviors. That puts all power of discretion into their hands, and makes the citizens scared and compliant.

His crimes against his victims are serious. But the "crime" he's being sentenced for today is no crime at all -- except on the government's part.

Dennis Hastert, the Republican who for eight years presided over the House and was second in the line of succession to the presidency, was sentenced Wednesday to more than a year in prison in the hush-money case that included accusations he sexually abused teenagers while coaching high school wrestling.

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In explaining his punishment, the judge called Hastert a "serial child molester" and described as "unconscionable" his attempt to accuse one of the victims of extortion.

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Earlier in the hearing, a former athlete who said he was molested by Hastert decades ago told the courtroom that he was "devastated" by the abuse.

The man, now in his 50s, said Hastert abused him while they were alone in a locker room. He struggled to hold back tears as he described the incident in detail. In the years since, he said, he sought professional help and had trouble sleeping. He said the memory still causes him pain.

He said he trusted and looked up to Hastert.

In his own statement, Hastert admitted that he "mistreated" some of his athletes and said he was "deeply ashamed."

"I am sorry to those I hurt and misled," he said. "What I did was wrong and I regret it."

Individual A was 14 when Hastert abused him, according to court documents filed by the government earlier this month. Hastert would have been in his 20s or 30s.

The teenager was one of around a dozen boys returning to Yorkville from a wrestling camp. Stopping at a motel, Hastert, the only adult on the trip, told Individual A to stay with him in one room. The other boys stayed in another room.

Hastert said he wanted to check a groin pull the boy suffered, ordering him onto a bed and telling him to take off his underwear. When the teen realized Hastert "was touching him in an inappropriate sexual way," he jumped up, ran across the room and sat in a chair, the court papers said.

Later, he walked back and apologized to Hastert, who then told the boy to give him a back message. Confused and embarrassed, the boy complied.

Individual A confronted Hastert in 2010. At a prearranged meeting, he asked why Hastert had abused him. Hastert, the filing said, responded that it had been "a confusing and difficult time in his life."

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INDIVIDUAL B

Individual B was also 14 when he says Hastert abused him. It happened when he was alone in the locker room with Hastert after a workout. He told prosecutors Hastert offered him a massage, telling him it would help "loosen him up." Hastert then "performed a sexual act" on him, the court documents said.

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INDIVIDUAL C

Individual C had just stepped out of a locker room shower when Hastert offered him a massage. He didn't think it strange at first. But when his towel came off, Hastert brushed his hand against the boy's genitals. "Individual C recalls that it was 'very weird' and made him uncomfortable," according to the court papers. But Individual C wasn't sure the touching was intentional.

You get the pattern.

The guy Republicans called "Coach" for years.

"Coach."

The Flair Principle of Law: If the government will throw people in jail for not wearing 37 pieces of flair, they should at least make 37 the official legal requirement -- not tell them 15 is the minimum, but they'll encourage them (through prison sentences) to do more than the minimum.